An open collection of baseball's little-known records and curiosities.

"He would have been among the league leaders in batting average for a majority of the season had he had enough plate appearances." -- 2008 St. Louis Cardinals Media Guide about non-roster invitee Mark Johnson

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Last Thursday, Kris Medlen was the Atlanta Braves' starting pitcher in a game against the Colorado Rockies. It was his major league debut. He lasted three innings, giving up five runs on three hits and five walks. He also hit a batter and threw two wild pitches. The Rockies went on to win the game 9-0.

The point of this isn't that Medlen had a rough debut - no doubt a desire to impress in his first big league game led to overthrowing and wildness (he has a career BB/9 of 2.0 in the minors). I only bring up his debut because of something else he did: he balked. With two out in the first inning, Todd Helton singled to end a 10-pitch at bat. Medlen then balked, moving Helton to second and allowing Brad Hawpe to drive him in.

Now, Medlen isn't the first player to balk in his major league pitching debut. In fact, he's the 127th player to do so since 1954. Here are some other members of the club: Jim Colborn, Gary Nolan, Jerry Reuss, Milt Wilcox, Bob McClure, Bob Walk, Fernando Valenzuela, Ron Darling, Rudy Seanez, Shane Reynolds, Freddy Garcia, and position players Rocky Colavito and Cesar Tovar. Surprisingly, only three pitchers joined in 1988, the "Year of the Balk."

Nine pitchers balked in their first two games (Medlen's second start was balk-free):

Interestingly, all nine players debuted in the National League. Of the 127 pitchers with debut balks since 1954, 80 of them started in the NL. I guess the senior circuit doesn't cotton to new kids on the block with their fancy moves.

Medlen is the thirteen player to balk in his pitching debut since the turn of the millenium. The others:

Sunday, May 24, 2009

With the advent of pitch counts and specialized bullpens, starting pitchers have begun averaging fewer and fewer innings per start. One often-noted effect of this is a reduced number of complete games and shutouts around the league. Where the league complete games leader routinely reached double-digits and often more than 20 CG in the 1970's, now baseball has seen only two pitchers complete more than ten games in one year since 1999: Randy Johnson's 12 that season and CC Sabathia's 10 last year. Shutouts are the same way. Where leaders used to regularly place between 5-10, baseball has only seen three players reach five in a year since 1999: AJ Burnett in 2002, Dontrelle Willis in 2005, and CC Sabathia in 2008.

Complete games and shutouts aren't the only casualties of starters not pitching as deep into games anymore. The number of decisions by those starters have been falling as well. If pitchers only last six innings on a quality night, that leaves plenty of time for a bullpen to blow a lead. Likewise, there are plenty of opportunities for his offense to let him off the hook for the loss. This means it's tough for starters to put together long streaks of decisions in each start - somewhere along the line some reliever or batter messes things up.

NOTE: When I wrote this, I was actually looking at streaks of decisions in each appearance, whether starting or in relief. Since starters appeared in relief more prior to the 1970's, it makes a difference in some of the streaks below. You can find the longest streaks of decisions in starts here. The longest such streak is really Fergie Jenkins' 63 in 1970-1971. Sorry for the confusion.

On Friday night, the Toronto Blue Jays lost to the Atlanta Braves 1-0 after a Casey Kotchman sacrifice fly drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 8th. Jays starter Roy Halladay had been pinch-hit for the inning before, so Jesse Carlson was tagged with the loss. Notably, Halladay hadn't had a no-decision since June 25, 2008. That start also occurred in interleague play, but the Blue Jays were at home, so you can't blame pinch-hitting. Halladay's string of 26 decisions in 26 starts ties him for the 40th longest such streak since 1954. The only other starters to carry a streak that far since 2000 were Roy Oswalt (26, 2004-2005), Tim Wakefield (26, 2007), and Bartolo Colon (30, 2004-2005). Colon is one of only nineteen pitchers to reach 30 straight decisions since 1954:

Gaylord Perry, 47 (28 W, 19 L) - 1972-1973

Nolan Ryan, 42 (25-17) - 1974-1975

Juan Marichal, 41 (28-13) - 1964-1965

Wilbur Wood, 38 (20-18) - 1972-1973

Charlie Hough, 36 (18-18) - 1985-1986

Fritz Peterson, 35 (18-17) - 1971-1972

Nolan Ryan, 34 (19-15) - 1976-1977

Dick Ellsworth, 34 (17-17) - 1963-1964

Gaylord Perry, 33 (12-21) - 1974-1975

Fergie Jenkins, 33 (20-13) - 1970

Robin Roberts, 33 (15-18) - 1959-1960

Bob Friend, 32 (19-13) - 1958

Ron Guidry, 31 (21-10) - 1983-1984

Luis Tiant, 31 (20-11) - 1973

Stan Bahnsen, 31 (12-19) - 1973-1974

Bartolo Colon, 30 (18-12) - 2004-2005

Steve Rogers, 30 (19-11) - 1981-1982

Mickey Lolich, 30 (19-11) - 1971-1972

Fergie Jenkins, 30 (20-10) - 1970-1971

Randy Johnson came close to joining in 1998, carrying a streak of 29 straight through the end of the year, but the Diamondbacks bullpen couldn't protect a lead in his first start of 1999.

Halladay hasn't had a no-decision against an American League opponent since September 21, 2007, when he threw 8 2/3 innings against the Yankees in what was eventually a 14-inning, 5-4 Toronto triumph. That gives him 40 straight starts with a win or loss against the AL, placing him behind only Perry's 47 51 and Ryan's 42 41 since 1954. In those 40 starts, Halladay is 29-11 with a 2.79 ERA and 246 strikeouts in exactly 300 innings pitched. Can he go eight twelve more starts to eclipse Perry? It's definitely something to keep tabs on when following the tight AL East race.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

My first real post on this blog had to do with one of my favorite topics: guys with more strikeouts than total bases. Since I never posted a follow-up with 2007 and 2008 players added, I figured now was a good time. The 2009 season is about one-quarter over, so it's also easy to look at guys who might join the list.

First up, the updated list of players with more strikeouts than total bases in 200 or more at bats:

Name

Year

Team

Position

AB

AVG

OBP

SLG

TB

SO

OPS+

Bill Bergen

1911

BRO

C

227

.132

.183

.154

35

42

-4

Billy Consolo

1954

BOS

SS

242

.227

.324

.277

67

69

59

Billy Consolo

1959

BOSWSH

SS

216

.213

.331

.269

58

59

67

Ernie Fazio

1963

HOU

2B

228

.184

.273

.281

64

70

65

Jerry Kindall

1963

CLE

2B

234

.205

.266

.295

69

71

58

Dave Nicholson

1964

CHW

LF

294

.204

.329

.365

107

126

96

Chris Cannizzaro

1965

NYM

C

251

.183

.270

.231

58

60

46

Don Zimmer

1965

WSA

C

226

.199

.284

.252

57

59

55

Ray Oyler

1966

DET

SS

210

.171

.263

.252

53

62

48

Jerry Zimmerman

1967

MIN

C

234

.167

.243

.192

45

49

26

Ray Oyler

1968

DET

SS

215

.135

.213

.186

40

59

20

George Scott

1968

BOS

1B

350

.171

.236

.237

83

88

40

Dick Tracewski

1968

DET

SS

212

.156

.239

.236

50

51

43

Al Weis

1968

NYM

SS

274

.172

.234

.204

56

63

32

Darrel Chaney

1969

CIN

SS

209

.191

.278

.234

49

75

42

Ray Oyler

1969

SEP

SS

255

.165

.260

.267

68

80

49

Jim Mason

1975

NYY

SS

223

.152

.228

.211

47

49

27

John Hale

1978

SEA

RF

211

.171

.283

.265

56

64

56

Leroy Stanton

1978

SEA

LF

302

.182

.265

.248

75

80

47

Bobby Bonds

1980

STL

LF

231

.203

.305

.316

73

74

72

Tom Donohue

1980

CAL

C

218

.188

.216

.243

53

63

27

Reggie Jackson

1983

CAL

RF

397

.194

.290

.340

135

140

74

Gary Pettis

1987

CAL

CF

394

.208

.302

.259

102

124

53

Jody Davis

1989

ATL

C

231

.169

.246

.242

56

61

39

John Shelby

1989

LAD

CF

345

.183

.237

.229

79

92

36

Jeff Kunkel

1990

TEX

SS

200

.170

.221

.280

56

66

40

Rob Deer

1991

DET

RF

448

.179

.314

.386

173

175

92

Hensley Meulens

1991

NYY

LF

288

.222

.276

.319

92

97

65

Gary Pettis

1991

TEX

CF

282

.216

.341

.277

78

91

75

Andujar Cedeno

1992

HOU

SS

220

.173

.232

.277

61

71

47

Jack Clark

1992

BOS

DH

257

.210

.350

.311

80

87

82

Billy Ashley

1995

LAD

LF

215

.237

.320

.372

80

88

90

Benji Gil

1995

TEX

SS

415

.219

.266

.347

144

147

60

Kimera Bartee

1996

DET

CF

217

.253

.308

.304

66

77

57

Archi Cianfrocco

1997

SDP

1B

220

.245

.328

.355

78

80

85

Mark Johnson

1997

PIT

1B

219

.215

.345

.315

69

78

73

Ryan McGuire

1998

MON

1B

210

.186

.292

.243

51

55

46

Greg Vaughn

2002

TBD

LF

251

.163

.286

.315

79

82

60

Mark Bellhorn

2005

BOSNYY

2B

300

.210

.324

.357

107

112

81

Mark Bellhorn

2006

SDP

3B

253

.190

.285

.344

87

90

66

Ryan Langerhans

2007

ATLOAKWSN

CF

210

.167

.272

.305

64

81

53

Andruw Jones

2008

LAD

CF

209

.158

.256

.249

52

76

34

Tony Pena

2008

KCR

SS

225

.169

.189

.209

47

49

7

Angels catcher Jeff Mathis came close to joining in 2008. Fortunately for him, two singles in his last two at-bats of the campaign gave him 90 total bases to go with his 90 strikeouts in 283 at bats.

As I said, the 2009 season is roughly 25% over. Here are the players with more strikeouts than total bases in 50 or more AB so far:

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Brad Nelson, 0 for 21 this year, was outrighted (booted off the 40-man roster but not released) to the minors by Milwaukee earlier this week. Since he was outrighted once before, he had the option to choose free agency rather than report to AAA. He did and has had contact from several teams. Until he signs, however, his brief major league career qualifies him for the following list:

Most Career Plate Apperances, No Singles

Name

Years

PA

H

2B

3B

HR

Bobby Tiefenauer

1952-1968

48

1

1

0

0

Randy Tate

1975

47

0

0

0

0

Bo McLaughlin

1976-1982

45

0

0

0

0

Tony McKnight

2000-2001

44

0

0

0

0

Daryl Patterson

1968-1974

37

0

0

0

0

Charlie Cady

1883-1884

36

2

1

1

0

George Borchers

1888-1895

34

2

2

0

0

Ted Davidson

1965-1968

34

0

0

0

0

Charley Stanceu

1941-1946

34

0

0

0

0

Hank Biasatti

1949

33

2

2

0

0

Andy Hassler

1971-1985

31

0

0

0

0

Brad Nelson

2008-2009

31

2

2

0

0

Sean Burnett

2004-2008

30

1

1

0

0

Skip Pitlock

1970-1975

30

2

1

0

1

As you can tell by the years each played, most of those players were pitches. Only Hank Biasatti, a first baseman for the Athletics, and Nelson were not pitchers for a significant portion of their careers. Charlie Cody started five games as a pitcher and also appeared in the outfield, second base, and catcher.

Another active position player who has struggled to single is Matthew Brown, a third baseman for the Angels. He batted 27 times in 2007 and 2008, hitting only a double. Brown is currently playing for the AAA Salt Lake Bees. Both Nelson and Brown will likely get more chances to single in the majors, so hopefully their time around this list is short.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

The Washington Nationals might have the worst record in the majors, but they've got one thing going for them. Through May 5th, every regular* in the Nationals lineup has an OPS+ over 100. No other team can claim that.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Back in the day I looked at pitchers who have made the most appearances without ever batting. With guys like Brian Shouse and Jamie Walker still LOOGY'ing it up in the AL East, I thought it'd be interesting to take another look at the leaderboard.

Obviously the guys that were on the list last time have climbed further up the ladder. Walker became only the eighth pitcher to appear in 500 games without batting last June and since Bradford is currently on the disabled list, he should take over as the active leader pretty soon. Speaking of the submariner, he's only 96 appearances away from setting the record for a righthander, but Francisco Rodriguez might end up seizing the top spot shortly after Bradford gets there.

J.J. Putz is the only new addition to the list. As I mentioned last time, Jason Frasor is getting near to 300 games without batting. He currently sits at 291 and, apropos of nothing, is 4-0 in ten appearances this year. Orioles closer George Sherrill has now appeared in 263 games without batting. The other active players above 200 games: